Ginger, date and banana tray bake with caramel icing – grain-free

I spotted a Guinness & Ginger tray bake cake in a weekend mag some weeks ago and thought it sounded nice, though immediately ruled out the Guinness, sugar, self-raising flour … I ended up completely changing the cake to make it gluten/grain, refined sugar and dairy free. In fact, the only original ingredients remaining are the eggs and ginger!

I’ve made this recipe quite a few times now: the first with just almond meal (a little dense); the second with more eggs (too wet); the third time, with a combo of buckwheat, almonds and tapioca. Goldilocks was most happy on the third try, as were the three bears …

Mill 30 seconds / speed 9:

120g buckwheat kernels

Add and mill 10 seconds / speed 9:

100-150g chopped dates

70g almonds (I use activated or flaked) – for nut free, try a seed mix instead. 25g of coconut flour would probably work, but you might need an extra egg added to the wet mix. I haven’t tried this though

Add and sift 6 seconds / speed 6:

10g tapioca flour

2 tsp ginger powder

Set aside in a separate bowl

Add to dry, empty bowl and whizz up 10 seconds / speed 9:

25g almonds, activated or flaked – or for nut free, use desiccated coconut

Weigh/pour milk into TM bowl and make sure it measures 100g. Top up with a bit extra water if need be. Keep the pulp for crackers or bliss balls or simply save up in the freezer until you have enough to dehydrate into flour.

Next, add to the bowl and whizz up 10 seconds / speed 5:

2 ripe bananas

2 eggs

100g flesh of avocado. If preferred, use coconut oil or half/half. Olive or almond oil also works. You can use butter if not dairy free.

You can use a loaf tin, but you’ll need to bake for an extra 15 minutes or so.

Once cooled, you can either top with a caramel icing or slice and eat as is!

Caramel icing:

Place in Thermomix bowl and cook at 100C for 2 minutes, speed 2:

50g ground dates (or date paste, perhaps)

1/2 tsp vanilla extract/powder

50g creamed coconut (the type you get from Asian stores, in blocks – otherwise use home-made/tinned cream and leave out the added coconut milk below, unless you think it needs it. You could add it bit by bit to get the right texture – you need a pourable icing, but not too thin.

100g coconut milk (or other milk preference)

Whizz up to a higher speed to achieve a smoother texture, if necessary, scraping down the sides of the bowl in between.